14 Key Considerations for the Winning Design – Douglas Alexander on EBN

Generally speaking, the more thoroughly a manufacturing team develops a design concept, and the more qualified the thought process involved, the more likely the end product’s success in the marketplace. That’s why most of us who are involved in electronics manufacturing or R&D are familiar with the acronyms DFT, DFM, and DFA. These three stand for Design for Test, Design for Manufacturing, and Design for Assembly. Without delineating the three acronyms into their corresponding disciplines, I would like to add a few more essential design considerations by which most designers live and die.

Design Tradeoffs that Make Financial Sense – Douglas Alexander on EBN

In response to my last article, 14 Key Considerations for the Winning Design , a reader named Waqasaltaf made the following statement with regard to design considerations:

EU Rallies REACH Enforcement Troop – Douglas Alexander on EBN

In a series of articles on the Registration, Evaluation, and Analysis of Chemicals (REACH) published by myself and others for EBN and Velocity, there has been much information provided for understanding the basics of the legislation and the resources that can guide a company through the procedures for necessary compliance. (See: Bridging the REACH Gulf With Sitmae and The End of JGPSSI & JIG-101.)

Strategies for using Third-Party Programming – Douglas Alexander on EBN

When a company moves into volume production, the part-inventory requirements increase both in quantity and aggregated value. Some of the parts used are off-the-shelf components, while others are custom, or programmable, parts. While program code is being developed and tested, an engineering lab will often buy or rent an EEPROM, PROM, or other type of memory programmer for R&D low-part counts where turnaround for prototype purposes is very fast.

Rising REACH Compliance Costs may Force Rethinking – Douglas Alexander on EBN

To date, there are a total of 84 chemical listings on the Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) candidate list. The last thirteen additions were all carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction. The target number by the end of 2012 is 136 substances. Now for the sake of politics, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) plans to do hurry-up dossier submittals containing just the name of 38 additional substances along with their classifications.

ITAIDE: Toward Safer, More Secure Supply Chains – Douglas Alexander on EBN

It’s commonsense that the more one repeatedly does the same thing to complete a single task, the longer the job is going to take. If it were possible to identify every repetitive action and only do things once in order to achieve desired results, there would be an exponential savings in time and effort.

Six Degrees of Counterfeiting Detection & Prevention – Douglas Alexander on EBN

In one of the recent articles I wrote, there was a comment regarding document security and embedded RFID tags. The questions related to how the recipient would know that the document had not been tampered with, even if the RFID tag was genuine. I followed up on that comment and discovered the author of the question was from a company called 6DCP.

Voice Control Powering Distribution Efficiency – Douglas Alexander on EBN

Back in the 1980s, I was on a supplier audit mission and requested a review of a distributor’s warehouse system. I was taken to the back of a very large building, guided through secured double doors, and introduced to the unexpected.

Why a Regular Inventory Audit is Critical for Success – Douglas Alexander on EBN

In most manufacturing companies a hands-on, manual inventory audit is taken at least once a year and is therefore referred to as the “annual physical inventory.” Inventory-dependent businesses help maintain the integrity of the inventory by doing what is called a cycle count at least once a quarter. I will talk more about this a little later on. For now, let’s consider why it is important to conduct such a tedious, detailed effort.

Strengthening the Weakest Link: Security – Douglas Alexander on EBN

When you absolutely need an overnight shipment from overseas, it can be difficult to know when you’ll actually get the ordered goods.